SUBJECT: 07/86 WITNESS SEES AIRCRAFT EXPLODE IN AIR FILE: UFO1353
Report #: 198
From: UFO INFO SERVICE
Date Sent: 12-10-1986
Subject: BAKERSFIELD, CA
CASE TYPE: LRS
DATE: 12 JULY 1986
TIME: UNKNOWN
CFN#: 0320
DURATION: UNKNOWN
WITNESSES: THREE
SOURCE: MERCURY NEWS, SAN JOSE, CA
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REDONDO BEACH - Andy Hoyt admits he has no proof - not anymore, at least -
that he witnessed the crash of an aircraft that may be the Pentagon's most
carefully guarded secret.
His sister, Lisa, and her 16-year-old son, Joey, reportedly also saw the
plane, but both declined to discuss the alleged incident. Hoyt, an unemployed
Redondo Beach carpenter, says he snapped photographs of the plane as it
plummeted to the ground in the Sequoia National Forest near Bakersfield.
But the photographs were given to the Air Force, Hoyt says, and the Air
Force isn't talking.
Defense experts, however, say Hoyt's description of what he claims he saw
that night fits the most educated guesses of the configuration of the top
secret F-19 stealth fighter - a plane the Air Force will not confirm even
exists.
In a scenario that sounds like a science fiction movie, Hoyt says he and two
relatives saw something drop out of the sky and explode into flames on the
other side of a hill about a half-mile away.
"It seemed like it was something other than an airplane, said Hoyt, 26, who
was on a camping trip. "Believe it or not, I thought it was a UFO."
Whatever it was, he says, the military has been treating him royally since
he called Edwards Air Force Base when he returned home the following Sunday
evening and told the Air Force about the photographs.
Hoyt says he and his party were driving east on state Highway 178 about 15
miles northeast of Bakersfiled in the early morning hours of July 12 when they
pulled over for a brief rest. He was just climbing back into his truck when
he saw it.
"All I saw were three red lights and a dark image behind them like an
upside-down triangle." Hoyt said, adding that each light was at a point of
the triangle. He said he pulled a camera from the dashboard of the truck and
managed to take two or three pictures before the plane disappeared over the
hill.
Then, a pair of explosions "lit up the sky like it was daylight out."
Contrary to published reports on the day of the accident, Hoyt says, the
aircraft did not explode before it crashed. At least one Air Force source has
been quoted as saying plane exploded in midair, which could explain why the
pilot, who was killed, was not able to eject safetly.
"It was definitely not on fire when it came down," Hoyt said. "Why couldn't
the guy eject?"
After making sure the blaze was reported on an emergency roadside phone, the
party continued to its campground north of nearby Lake Isabella.
His call to Edwards upon returning home brought a sudden response from the
Air Force, Hoyt says. "They took my name and number and within an hour
someone had flown down here and talked to me," he said.
"They didn't press me, but they wanted to see the film in my camera."
The next day, the Air Force officers took Hoyt, his sister and nephew to
Hawthorne Municpal Airport, where they flew them to a command post a few miles
from the crash site, he says. The visitors were treated to lunch, then driven
back up the mountain road where Hoyt said he saw the crash.
"They wanted to know what the angle was when it came down," he said. "They
used some tool to measure something after we pointed at the spot."
After developing the film in Hoyt's camera, he says, the Air Force returned
two sets of enlarged prints of the family camping trip - minus the frames
that could have shown the descending aircraft.
An Air Force officer who interviewed Hoyt and his relatives asked them not
to talk to anyone about what they saw, "but said he couldn't force me," he
said.
The Air Force will confirm only that a plane crashed, killing its pilot. It
refuses to divulge what kind of aircraft, the base from which it took off or
its mission.
Military guards armed with M-16 rifles have sealed off a large area around
the crash site.
Back home in Redondo Beach, Hoyt says he feels a bit bewildered by all the
attention his claims have brought.
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